Machining device and machining method

ABSTRACT

A machining device for simultaneously machining a plurality of work pieces  71, 72  on one machining table  7  with high positional accuracy is provided. The machining device detects positions of the work pieces  71, 72  with detectors  91, 92  mounted to respective machining heads  81, 82.  The machining device has respective units for, based on the positional data, moving the machining table  7  to a position where displacements of respective machining heads  81, 82  are nearly equal, and for moving machining ranges of machining heads  81, 82  so as to substantially eliminate displacements between respective machining heads  81, 82  and work pieces  71, 72.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to a machining device comprising amachining table for receiving a work piece, a machining head, and aposition detector for detecting a position of the work piece, and to amachining method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] A conventional machining device that uses a laser beam as amachining means and comprises a machining table for receiving a workpiece, a machining head, and a position detector for detecting aposition of the work piece has a structure as shown in FIG. 11. Theconventional machining device will be described hereinafter withreference to FIG. 11.

[0003] Main controller 2 divides storage unit 1 storing machiningpositions and machining conditions into storage unit 31 and machiningcondition 32. Printed board 71, namely the work piece, is placed onmachining table 7. Y-axis driving unit 61 and X-axis driving unit 62drive machining table 7 two-dimensionally. Laser beams emitted fromlaser oscillator 51 are guided to machining head 81 by mirrors 52 a, 52b. Machining head 81 is fixed to a position facing machining table 7.Machining head controller 8 controls machining head 81 totwo-dimensionally position the incident laser beams and to radiate thelaser beams to printed board 71. Machining head 81 is provided withcamera 91 that is used for seeing a mark for alignment. The mark hasbeen put on the printed board. Recognizing unit 9 recognizes a positionof the mark for alignment from an image obtained by camera 91, and thendetects the position of printed board 71. Positional information ofprinted board 71 detected by recognizing unit 9 is fed to maincontroller 2, and main controller 2 outputs a moving command tomachining table controller 6. The moving command aims to substantiallyeliminate displacement between the position of printed board 71 and thatof machining head 81. Machining table controller 6 receives the movingcommand from main controller 2, reads positional data, and controlsY-axis driving unit 61 and X-axis driving unit 62 to move the machiningtable to a position where the displacement between the position ofprinted board 71 and that of machining head 81 is substantiallyeliminated. Main controller 2 receives a signal indicating thecompletion of the movement from machining table controller 6, outputs acommand for starting the control of machining head 81 to machining headcontroller 8, and outputs a command for laser control to lasercontroller 5. Laser controller 5, on receiving the signal for lasercontrol from main controller 2, reads machining condition data, andcontrols laser oscillator 51 to radiate laser beams.

[0004] A machining device having the structure discussed above carriesin one printed board, machines it, and carries out it after themachining. The machining device then carries in next one printed board,and repeats this process.

[0005] Recently, requests for downsizing and lightening electronicequipment have become strong, and demands for packaging or high densitymounting increase. Improvement of the productivity is required inresponse to this situation, but tact time from the start to thecompletion of the machining is limited and a plurality of machiningdevices are required for improving the productivity. This case requiresa place for installing the plurality of machining devices, and thus theproductivity per area is disadvantageously reduced. Therefore, amachining device that has at least two machining heads and one machiningtable and can simultaneously machine at least two printed boards isrequired to improve the productivity with increase of the installationarea suppressed.

[0006] When a plurality of machining heads are mounted to theconventional machining device, however, errors occur in the mountingpositions and errors occur in positions on one machining table forreceiving at least two printed boards. In simultaneously machining atleast two printed boards, therefore, a resultant error of two kinds oferrors works as an error in a machining position to reduce the machiningaccuracy.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

[0007] A machining device comprises a machining table for receiving atleast two work pieces, at least two machining heads that aresubstantially fixed at positions facing the machining table and machinethe work pieces, and a detector for detecting a position of each workpiece. This machining device nearly equalizes displacements ofrespective machining heads with the machine heads, and substantiallyeliminates the displacement of each machining head by moving machiningranges of the machining heads.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a machining device in accordance withexemplary embodiment 1 of the present invention.

[0009]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a positioning controller of amachining device in accordance with exemplary embodiment 2 of thepresent invention.

[0010]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a positioning controller of amachining device in accordance with exemplary embodiment 3 of thepresent invention.

[0011]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a positioning controller of amachining device in accordance with exemplary embodiment 4 and exemplaryembodiment 6 of the present invention.

[0012]FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of machining heads of amachining device in accordance with exemplary embodiment 5 of thepresent invention.

[0013]FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a machining method in accordance withexemplary embodiment 1 of the present invention.

[0014]FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a machining method in accordance withexemplary embodiment 2 of the present invention.

[0015]FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a machining method in accordance withexemplary embodiment 3 of the present invention.

[0016]FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a machining method in accordance withexemplary embodiment 4 of the present invention.

[0017]FIG. 10 is a flow chart of a machining method in accordance withexemplary embodiment 6 of the present invention.

[0018]FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a conventional machining device.

[0019]FIG. 12 is a pattern diagram of machining ranges of the machiningheads.

[0020]FIG. 13 is an explanatory drawing of a process of correctingdisplacements of the machining heads with a machining table.

[0021]FIG. 14A is an explanatory drawing of a process of correctingdisplacements of the machining heads with the machining heads.

[0022]FIG. 14B is a pattern diagram of a machining range of one of themachining heads of FIG. 14A.

[0023]FIG. 14C is a pattern diagram of a machining range of the other ofthe machining heads of FIG. 14A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0024] Machining devices in accordance with exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention will be described hereinafter with reference to theaccompanying drawings. In the following description, similar elementsare denoted with the same reference numbers, and the detaileddescriptions of those elements are omitted.

[0025] (Exemplary embodiment 1)

[0026]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a machining device in accordance withexemplary embodiment 1 of the present invention.

[0027] Main controller 2 divides drill data having machining positionsand machining conditions in storage unit 1 into positional data andmachining condition data, and stores respective data in storage units31, 32. Printed boards 71, 72, namely work pieces, are placed onmachining table 7. Y-axis driving unit 61 and X-axis driving unit 62drive machining table 7 two-dimensionally. Laser beams emitted fromlaser oscillator 51 are guided to machining head 81 by mirrors 52 a, 52b. Machining head 81 is fixed to a position facing machining table 7.Spectroscope 53 is disposed between mirrors 52 a and 52 b, branches thelaser beams, and guides the branched laser beams to the other machininghead 82. Machining head controller 8 controls machining heads 81, 82 totwo-dimensionally position the incident laser beams and to radiate thelaser beams to printed boards 71, 72. Machining heads 81, 82 have rangesallowing two-dimensional positioning. The ranges are maximum machiningrange 801 indicating a limit as shown in FIG. 12 and machining range 802used for usual machining. Machining range 802 is controlled by machininghead controller 8 and can be moved within maximum machining range 801.Each of machining heads 81, 82 has each of cameras 91, 92 for observinga mark for alignment put on each printed board. Recognizing unit 9recognizes positions of the marks for alignment from images observed bycameras 91, 92, and then detects respective positions of printed boards71, 72.

[0028] Operations of the machining device of the present embodiment aredescribed hereinafter step by step with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 6, andFIG. 12.

[0029] Placing step 101 of the printed boards: On starting themachining, two printed boards 71, 72 of printed boards (work pieces) areplaced on machining table 7.

[0030] Detecting step 111 of positions of the printed boards:Recognizing unit 9 detects positions of printed boards 71, 72. Then, onreceiving an operation command from main controller 2, positioningcontroller 4 receives positional information of printed boards 71, 72.

[0031] Calculating step 121 of displacement every head: Displacementsbetween respective machining heads 81, 82 and respective printed boardsare calculated. Positioning controller 4 outputs, to machining tablecontroller 6, a moving command for nearly equalizing the displacementbetween the position of printed board 71 and the position of machininghead 81 with the displacement between the position of printed board 72and the position of machining head 82.

[0032] Moving step 131 of the machining table: Machining tablecontroller 6 controls Y-axis driving unit 61 and X-axis driving unit 62to move machining table 7 to a position where calculated displacementsare nearly equal.

[0033] Moving step 141 of the machining range: Positioning controller 4outputs, to machining head controller 8, a moving command forsubstantially eliminating the displacement of each machining head thatremains after the movement of machining table 7, and moves machiningrange 802 with each machining head.

[0034] The series of operations correct the displacement between eachmachining head and each printed board. Then, machining step 151 isperformed by laser radiation.

[0035] Positioning controller 4 moves the machining table so as tonearly equalize the displacements between respective machining heads andwork pieces, and moves machining ranges of respective machining heads soas to substantially eliminate the remaining displacements. Thus, when aplurality of work pieces are placed on one machining table andsimultaneously machined by a plurality of machining heads, displacementbetween each machining head and each work piece can be eliminated.

[0036] (Exemplary embodiment 2)

[0037]FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of positioning controller 4 ofa machining device in accordance with exemplary embodiment 2 of thepresent invention. Positioning controller 4 has main positioningcontroller 41 and storage unit 43 for storing a maximum machining rangeof each machining head. The other elements are the same as those ofexemplary embodiment 1. FIG. 7 illustrates a machining method having thefollowing steps between calculating step 121 of displacement every headand moving step 131 of the machining table in FIG. 6.

[0038] Step 125: It is checked whether or not moving amounts ofmachining ranges of the machining heads exceed the maximum machiningranges. When the moving amounts are within the maximum machining ranges,the operation proceeds to moving step 131.

[0039] Error handling step 126: When the moving amounts are out of themaximum machining ranges, error handling such as the stop of themachining is performed and the machining is finished.

[0040] Operations of the present embodiment are described with referenceto FIG. 2 and FIG. 7.

[0041] Main positioning controller 41, in moving the machining range ofeach machining head so as to substantially eliminate the displacementbetween each machining head and each work piece, determines in step 125whether or not the movement of the machining range exceeds the maximummachining range stored in storage unit 43. When the machining rangeexceeds the maximum machining range, the operation proceeds to step 126,and main positioning controller 41 outputs a signal for stopping themachining to main controller 2, recognizing unit 9, machining headcontroller 8, laser controller 5, and machining table controller 6.

[0042] Thus, each machining head is prevented from moving in a machiningrange exceeding the maximum machining range.

[0043] (Exemplary embodiment 3)

[0044]FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram of a positioning controller ofa machining device in accordance with exemplary embodiment 3 of thepresent invention. Positioning controller 4 has machining tablecorrecting unit 44 in addition to the elements in exemplary embodiment2.

[0045] Operations of the present embodiment are described hereinafterwith reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 8.

[0046] In step 101 to step 121, operations are the same as those inembodiment 1, and displacement between a position of each machining headand a position of each printed board is calculated. Next, in generatingstep 122 of machining table corrective data, the following operation isperformed.

[0047] Machining table correcting unit 44 calculates a moving amount ofthe machining table so as to nearly equalize the displacements betweenrespective machining heads and work pieces that are received fromrecognizing unit 9. This calculation is performed using an average ofthe displacements. Machining table correcting unit 44 outputs thecalculated moving amount as machining table corrective data to maincontroller 4.

[0048] Then, similarly to embodiment 2, it is checked in step 125whether or not moving amounts of the machining heads in machining rangesexceed the maximum machining ranges. When the moving amounts are withinthe maximum machining ranges, this operation proceeds to step 132. Whenthe moving amounts are out of the maximum machining ranges, errorhandling is performed in step 126 and the machining is finished. In step132, the following operation is performed.

[0049] Main positioning controller 41 adds the machining tablecorrective data to desired positional data, and outputs the result tomachining table controller 6. Machining table controller 6 controlsY-axis driving unit 61 and X-axis driving unit 62 to move machiningtable 7 to a position where the calculated displacements are nearlyequal.

[0050] Operations after this are the same as those in embodiment 1. Suchstructure and machining method allow easy correction of thedisplacements.

[0051] A method of calculating the machining table corrective data isdescribed with reference to FIG. 13. Assuming that displacement 901 onhead 1 side is (x1, y1) and displacement 902 on head 2 side is (x2, y2),an average 903 of them is (x1/2+x2/2, y1/2+y2/2). When the machiningtable is moved by the average, displacements of both heads becomesmallest. A machining data correcting unit operates using the movingamount as the machining table corrective data.

[0052] (Exemplary embodiment 4)

[0053]FIG. 4 is a detailed block diagram of a positioning controller 4of a machining device in accordance with exemplary embodiment 4 of thepresent invention. Positioning controller 4 has machining headcorrecting unit 45 in addition to the elements in exemplary embodiment3. Machining head correcting unit 45 calculates machining headcorrective data so as to substantially eliminate displacement of eachmachining head, and outputs the data to main positioning controller 41.

[0054] Operations of the present embodiment are described with referenceto FIG. 4 and FIG. 9.

[0055] In step 101 to step 121, operations are the same as those inembodiment 1, and the displacement between a position of each machininghead and a position of each printed board is calculated. Next, ingenerating step 123 of machining head corrective data, the followingoperation is performed.

[0056] Machining head corrective data for correcting the remainingdisplacements of machining heads 81, 82 after the movement in movingstep 131 of the machining table is generated.

[0057] Then, similarly to embodiment 2, it is checked in step 125whether or not moving amounts of the machining heads in machining rangesexceed the maximum machining ranges. When the moving amounts are withinthe maximum machining ranges, this operation proceeds to step 131. Whenthe moving amounts are out of the maximum machining ranges, errorhandling is performed in step 126 and the machining is finished. In step131 and step 132, the following operations are performed.

[0058] Machining table 7 is moved to a position where calculateddisplacements are nearly equal.

[0059] Then, main positioning controller 41 receives calculatedmachining head corrective data, supplies a moving command to machininghead controller 8 based on the data, and moves machining ranges ofrespective machining heads 81, 82 in step 142.

[0060] Displacements between machining head 81 and printed board 71 andbetween machining head 82 and printed board 72 are thus corrected. Themachining is then performed. Such structure and machining method alloweasy correction of the displacements.

[0061] A method of calculating the machining head corrective data isdescribed with reference to FIG. 14A. The arrow disposed in anintermediate position between machining heads 1, 2 shows a vector movingon the machining table so as to nearly equalize displacement 911 ofmachining head 1 with displacement 912 of machining head 2. After themovement of the arrow on the machining table, the displacement on themachining head 1 side is L1 and the displacement on the machining head 2side is L2. For substantially eliminating L1 and L2, each machining headmoves each machining range. In this case, machining head corrective datafor respective machining heads is L1 and L2. Positions of respectivemachining ranges of machining heads 1, 2 are images shown in FIG. 14Band FIG. 14C.

[0062] (Exemplary embodiment 5)

[0063]FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of machining heads of amachining device in accordance with exemplary embodiment 5 of thepresent invention.

[0064] Laser beams emitted from laser oscillator 51 are guided tomachining head 81 by mirror 52, two-dimensionally positioned by galvanoscanners 810, 820, and focused on a work piece by lens 830. Thus, thework piece is machined. Galvano scanners 810, 820 realizetwo-dimensional positioning of the laser beams, and machining headcontroller 8 controls galvano scanners 810, 820.

[0065] On receiving a command from machining head controller 8, galvanoscanners 810, 820 move the machining ranges. Machining head 81 has beendescribed here; however, machining head 82 is also similar to machininghead 81.

[0066] (Exemplary embodiment 6)

[0067] Exemplary embodiment 6 of the present invention is a machiningmethod using the machining device of exemplary embodiment 4. Themachining method is described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 1, FIG.4, and FIG. 10.

[0068] In step 101 to step 122, operations are the same as those inembodiment 4, displacements between respective machining heads andprinted boards are calculated, an average of displacements of the headsfrom the calculated displacements is calculated, and machining tablecorrective data is generated. Next, in generating step 123 of machininghead corrective data, machining head corrective data for correcting theremaining displacements of machining heads 81. 82 after the movement inmoving step 132 of the machining table is generated. In step 125,similarly to embodiment 4, moving amounts of machining ranges ofmachining heads 81, 82 are determined. In step 132, the machining tablecorrective data generated in step 122 is added to a desired positionaldata, and machining table 7 is moved to a position after the correction.In step 142, the machining ranges of machining heads 81, 82 are shiftedby the generated machining head corrective data, and displacementsbetween machining head 81 and printed board 71 and between machininghead 82 and printed board 72 are thus corrected. After the stepsdiscussed above are performed, laser beams are radiated to performmachining step 152.

[0069] Since corrective data is previously generated in step 122 andstep 123, the correcting processes in step 132 and step 142 can besimplified and the corrections can be facilitated. Since each printedboard is positioned and then machined, accuracy of the machiningposition is improved.

[0070] In the embodiments of the present invention, storage units 1, 31,32, and 43 are formed of a general semiconductor memory, a magneticmemory such as a hard disk or a floppy disk, or a magnet-optical memorysuch as a magnet-optical disk. The units have been described to beindividual, but some of them may be integrally formed.

[0071] Any of main controller 2, positioning controller 4 (mainpositioning controller 41, machining table correcting unit 44, andmachining head correcting unit 45), laser controller 5, machining tablecontroller 6, and machining head controller 8 is formed of amicrocomputer. They have been described to be individual, but some ofthem may be integrally formed.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0072] A machining device of the present invention detects positions ofwork pieces with detectors disposed in machining heads, calculatesdisplacements between the positions of respective work pieces andpositions of respective machining heads, moves a machining table so asto nearly equalize the displacements of the machining heads, and movesmachining ranges of the machining heads. Thus, when at least two workpieces are simultaneously machined by one machining device,displacements between respective work pieces and machining heads can beeasily substantially eliminated, laser beams can be radiated to acorrect position, and machining can be performed with high accuracy inmachining position.

Reference Numerals

[0073]1 Storage unit

[0074]2 Main controller

[0075]31, 32 Storage units

[0076]4 Positioning controller

[0077]41 Main positioning controller

[0078]43 Storage unit

[0079]44 Machining table correcting unit

[0080]45 Machining head correcting unit

[0081]5 Laser controller

[0082]51 Laser oscillator

[0083]52 a, 52 b Mirrors

[0084]53 Spectroscope

[0085]6 Machining table controller

[0086]61 Y-axis driving unit

[0087]62 X-axis driving unit

[0088]7 Machining table

[0089]71, 72 Printed boards

[0090]8 Machining head controller

[0091]81, 82 Machining heads

[0092]810, 820 Galvano scanners

[0093]830 lens

[0094]9 Recognizing unit

[0095]91, 92 Cameras

[0096]101 Placing step of printed board

[0097]111 Detecting step of position of printed board

[0098]121 Calculating step of displacement every head

[0099]122 Generating step of machining table corrective data

[0100]123 Generating step of machining head corrective data

[0101]125 Step of determining whether or not displacement of each headis within tolerance

[0102]126 Error handling step

[0103]131 Moving step of machining table

[0104]132 Moving step of machining table based on machining tablecorrective data

[0105]141 Moving step of machining range

[0106]142 Moving step of machining range of machining head based onmachining head corrective data

[0107]151 Machining step

1. A machining device comprising: a machining table for receiving atleast two work pieces; at least two machining heads for machining thework pieces, said machining heads being substantially fixed to positionsfacing said machining table; and detectors for detecting positions ofthe work pieces, said detectors being disposed in said machining heads,wherein said machining table is moved so as to equalize displacements ofsaid machining heads based on a detection result of said detectors, andmachining ranges of said machining heads are moved so as to eliminatethe displacements of said machining heads.
 2. A machining deviceaccording to claim 1 further comprising: a driving unit for moving saidmachining table; a machining table controller for controlling saiddriving unit; a machining head controller for moving the machiningranges of said machining heads; and a positioning controller forreceiving a signal from said detecting means and receiving displacementsbetween the work pieces and said machining heads for machining the workpieces, wherein said positioning controller outputs, to said machiningtable controller, a signal for moving said machining table so as toequalize the displacements of said respective machining heads using saidmachining heads, and said positioning controller outputs, to saidcontroller, a signal for moving the machining ranges of said machiningheads so as to eliminate the displacements of said respective machiningheads.
 3. A machining device according to claim 1, wherein, in movingthe machining ranges of said machining heads so as to eliminate thedisplacements of said respective machining heads, said machining devicestops machining when each of the machining ranges is out of maximummachining range.
 4. A machining device according to claim 2, wherein, inmoving the machining ranges of said machining heads so as to eliminatethe displacements of said respective machining heads, said positioningcontroller outputs a signal for stopping machining when each of themachining ranges is out of maximum machining range.
 5. A machiningdevice according to claim 2, wherein said positioning controllerprocesses machining table corrective data, namely moving data in movingsaid machining table so as to equalize the displacements of saidrespective machining heads.
 6. A machining device according to claim 5,further comprising a storage unit for storing machining positional dataindicating machining positions of the work pieces, wherein saidpositioning controller processes the machining positional data and themachining table corrective data.
 7. A machining device according toclaim 2, wherein said positioning controller processes machining headcorrective data, namely moving data in moving the machining ranges ofsaid machining heads so as to eliminate the displacements of saidrespective machining heads.
 8. A machining device according to claim 7,further comprising a storage unit for storing machining positional dataindicating machining positions of the work pieces, wherein saidpositioning controller processes the machining positional data and themachining head corrective data.
 9. A machining device according to claim1, further comprising: a laser oscillator for supplying laser beams tosaid machining heads; and a galvano scanner and a lens for radiating, tothe work pieces, the laser beams supplied to said machining heads.
 10. Amachining method comprising the steps of: placing at least two workpieces on a machining table; recognizing positions of the placed workpieces; calculating displacements between the work pieces and machiningheads for machining the work pieces respectively; moving the machiningtable to a position for equalizing the displacements of the respectivemachining heads; and moving a machining range of each machining head ata position of the moved machining table.
 11. A machining methodaccording to claim 10, wherein, in moving the machining ranges of themachining heads so as to eliminate the displacements between the workpieces and machining heads for machining the work pieces at the positionof the moved machining table, machining is stopped when each of themachining ranges of the respective machining heads is out of maximummachining range.
 12. A machining method according to claim 10, whereinthe step of moving the machining table comprises the steps of:generating machining table corrective data for moving the machiningtable to a position for equalizing the displacements of the respectivemachining heads; and moving the machining table based on the machiningtable corrective data.
 13. A machining method according to claim 10 orclaim 12, wherein the step of moving the machining range of eachmachining head comprises the steps of: generating machining headcorrective data for moving the machining heads to positions forequalizing the displacements of the respective machining heads; andmoving each of the machining ranges of the machining heads based on themachining head corrective data at the position of the moved machiningtable.
 14. A machining method according to claim 10, wherein laser beamsare radiated to the work pieces via the machining heads.